Sunday, February 05, 2006

Blues



We went to Monroe Community College to see "4 on the Floor: Songwriters in the Round". This was a free concert.....donations accepted. The Monroe County Library System is having a Black History Month Blues Series and put together these four artists. They had never been on the stage together, so it was interesting watching them get comfortable with each other's style. As the evening wore on, they started to participate in each other's songs. Each one had a chance to perform a song and the others were encouraged to join in. We had seen both Guy Davis (second from the right) and Rev. Robert Jones (first from the right). They both are awesome. Usually they both do traditional blues. Guy is my favorite. Dave has interviewed both of them.

Robert is from Detroit and has an active church, the Sweet Kingdom Missionary Church. He did a song about his grandmother which made me cry. What is bad is that I have that album and have cried before when listening to the song. So I tried not to cry, but there is one spot in the song that catches you off guard. Here is a small video of him singing the song: Robert Jones

Guy is the son of Ozzie Davis and Ruby Dee (most younger people do not know who I am talking about, but if you are my age, you will know - two beautiful people, actors both). Guy taught himself the guitar (never having the patience to take formal lessons) - (kind of sounds like me, I have no patience for formal training). He was on TV as One Life to Live's Josh Hall. Now he goes all over the world performing his blues music. It is pretty close to the traditional blues and he has a wonderful sense of humor. This is a small video of him playing the banjo: Guy Davis

But it was nice "meeting" EG Kight and Ellis Hooks. EG is the woman. She had a voice that was a clear as a bell, a sense of humor, and had some smokin' riffs on the guitar. Ellis was notable for his energy and passion that he puts into his music. He seemed like a really nice guy.

After the show we had planned to go out to eat for our anniversary. Dave had found an Italian restaurant. We were hoping that it was not closed at the late hour that we got out of the concert (9:30). It wasn't and it was a very nice place. I had the pasta trio and Dave had the gnocchi. If we are back in the area, we will probably go back.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Sounds like you both had a great weekend! Didn't we see Guy Davis with you in Holland? He is quite a performer. I enjoyed the videos and I never realized how difficult "things" could be for a "lefty" . . . Gees . . .